Posts in category Announcements

I’ve had Corona SDK plugins in the Corona Marketplace for nearly 2 years now, and in that time the plugins have been free. This is largely because at the onset of the Marketplace, Corona Labs did not support paid community plugins. That changed late last year, when they allowed developers to charge for plugins and other development assets, much like Unity does with its own marketplace (among others). This has been a real boon to the Marketplace, as the number and quality of plugins has increased significantly now that developers can earn real money for their efforts extending the platform. I’m personally a very happy customer of many of my fellow plugin developers.

While I will continue to provide community support free of charge via this site and the Corona Labs forums, I have decided to start charging what I think is a reasonable one-time fee for activating my Corona plugins. Writing plugins takes a significant investment of time and energy, as does supporting them with bugfixes and updates, and I believe it is important for developers to value their time.

If you had previously activated either plugin, you can continue to use it for free – your license to the plugin(s) remains valid. These new costs will only apply for new activations.

As of today, I offer two plugins: a Twitter plugin which will now cost $2.99 to activate, and a Stripe plugin, which will cost $4.99 to activate. I hope that new developers will continue to find them useful additions to their Corona toolkits, worth the cost. Look for new plugins (at reasonable rates) from me in the coming year.

It’s not every day that you’re given the opportunity to revisit old client-based projects, so what a treat it was that Michele Wong-McSween, the author of the Gordon & Li Li children’s book series contacted me last fall about making a “version 2.0” of an app I created for her back in 2012. And I’m happy to report that the new improved Gordon & Li Li: Learn Animals in Mandarin is available on the App Store and Google Play!

The first version of G&L was an iPad-only app. For this new version, we’ve made it available for almost any mobile device: it’s now a universal iOS app as well as an Android app that is optimized for both smartphones and tablets. While most of the beautiful animations by Nam Doan are still the same as they were in the 2012 iteration (“if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”), almost every “page” of the app now features fun interactive elements that really engage young users – this is the first app I’ve made that my own 19-month-old twins were really reaching for in a big way, which was a huge rush for me as a father and app developer. (In case you were wondering, Declan’s favorite page is the lion, who roars when tapped, and Sadie loves the pig, who jumps into a mud pile, leaving a satisfying “splat!” of mud on the screen.)

The 2015 version of G&L also features a much-improved tracing functionality for teaching children how to write Mandarin characters, stroke-by-stroke, and a new animated introduction by Jon Brzyski. There are also five new “bonus” words, featuring Gordon & Li Li’s favorite foods. Overall, I think we made significant improvements over the first version of the app, and opened it up to a whole new audience beyond just iPad users. I’m really pleased with it – I hope you’ll give it a try!

I’m super-thrilled to announce that after years of creating apps for clients, I have finally released an app of my very own: conceived, created, and released as a fully solo endeavor. Social Poetry is an exciting FREE app that puts a 21st-century spin on the traditional “found poetry” style of composition. Use it to mix and match words pulled exclusively from your Facebook news feed, add your own photos, customize your style, and share your creations with the world! With a new set of words every time you open the app, the possibilities are limitless!

Social Poetry is available for iOS and Android (Google Play and Amazon App Store). It’s a free download, with a single in-app purchase that unlocks premium features like access to 100 fonts and unlimited color options, and the ability to create custom word magnets using the keyboard. Please download it now, and remember to leave a review in the App Store!

I’m happy to announce that in response to strong interest from teachers eager to implement Spanish School Bus into their curriculums, we have released an Education Edition of the app. The Education Edition is essentially the same as the free version, except all content is unlocked right away, without the need for any in-app purchase. By charging up-front for the fully-unlocked app, we enable teachers to take advantage of Apple’s Volume Purchase Program, which doesn’t extend to in-app purchases. Hopefully this new version will mean that more and more students get to learn with the help of Spanish School Bus. If you are a Spanish teacher looking for a fun and engaging way to boost your students’ vocabulary skills, please check out Spanish School Bus – Education Edition today!

Yikes, having a couple of kids has really sapped my (poor to begin with) ability to post news to the site in a timely manner, because Spanish School Bus, my second collaboration with the terrific children’s publisher Chungaboo, has been out for months! It has even enjoyed a decent level of success, with thousands of active players worldwide and sustained Top-200 “What’s Hot” status in the U.S. iOS App Store (in the Card Games category) for over three months now.

But better late than never…to wit: go download “Spanish School Bus!” It’s free (there is an in-app purchase to unlock the entire game), it’s fun, and it’s available on the iOS App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Appstore.

Please Do Not Feed The Developers

The Corona SDK tutorials, modules and code snippets that I post on this site are free for you to use, with no expectation of repayment. But a few kind souls have told me that they wanted to toss me a few bucks as a way of saying "thanks," so I've added this donation button. If you like what I'm doing here, and wanted to contribute, feel free. And if not, that's cool too. I'm just glad you're here.